Cajón del Maipo - Trip to the Andes

Today we went on the long excursion to Cajón del Maipo. It started shortly after 6:00 AM and took us to a reservoir (El Yeso Dam) and a glacier in the Andes (the Cordillera). The distance is about 100 km and the drive takes around 2 hours.

The weather was very nice, cool in the early morning and then gradually warming up. One got a good sense of the nature of the mountains. The glaciers are mostly gone or lie much higher than in our area. Still, the tree line is also around 3,000m. In the main valley, much agriculture is practiced, especially viticulture, fruit and nut trees (walnuts and almonds), as well as some corn. There is a regular bus service into the valley, and there seem to be commuters who work in Santiago. At higher altitudes, one can mostly find sheep and no residential houses.

What stands out are the layers in the mountains. You can see black layers (volcanic ash), red layers (iron), green layers (copper), and white layers (gypsum). We also passed a large gypsum mining area. Thanks to this mining, there is actually a road there. The mine is also working on reforesting the areas designated for gypsum extraction.

We had a pleasant driver who drove well and didn't talk nonstop for a change. The group was also quite an interesting mix: a Russian, a Canadian, an American, a Singaporean, and an Indian...

Now we will look for a nice restaurant.